06 May 2010

Gary Summers has no right to advertise my case on the home page of Andrew Trollope QC’s website for the 187 Fleet Street Chambers. Here is the entry that presents my case as one of their ‘Notable Cases’:

Smith (last Russian Spy case)

What work did this Chambers actually do in promoting my case? I approached Gary Summers in 2003, and he gave me some advice on how to prepare an additional submission to the Criminal Cases Review Commission. He looked through what I had written and made a few suggestions, which I added. All he really did next was to send the documents to a solicitor friend, Neill Blundell, who interfaced with the CCRC to lodge the submission with them.

In other words I did nearly all of the real work in making my submission to the CCRC, and I fail to see how the Andrew Trollope Chambers can possibly claim any credit for handling my case?

The CCRC made a provisional decision in 2006 to reject my case, which I was determined to contest, as it left many of my points effectively unanswered or not satisfactorily dealt with. I was then astonished that Gary Summers and Neill Blundell both suddenly withdrew from my case in September 2006, knowing that it was still unresolved. It makes me wonder who was pulling their strings.